Retirees out of love with markets

Pensioners more than most were unnerved by last week's financial market gyrations, fearing for their retirement nest eggs.

New confidence figures show sentiment overall fell 2.3 per cent in February compared to January, but tumbled 13.5 per cent among retirees following the sell-off in Australian shares which saw tens of billions of dollars wiped off their value.

"Extensive media coverage of these developments would have unnerved respondents on two fronts," Westpac chief economist Bill Evans says.

"The impact on their own financial position and concerns for general global stability."

Despite this more negative tone, the survey still shows optimists outnumbering pessimists for the fourth straight month.

This followed 12 consecutive months where pessimists were in the ascendancy for all but one month.

The survey also found consumers continue to be more comfortable about the outlook for jobs.